News Overview

In the current issue (July 2022, German) of Hei­del­berg Uni­ver­si­ty's re­search magazine "Ruperto Carola", STRUC­TURES professor Wolfram Pernice provides insights into his re­search on novel computing platforms that work with light instead of electrons. These so-called "photonic" computing platforms allow to perform operations relevant to neural networks and artificial intelligence (AI) in very short times and with remarkable energy efficiency. This will be of huge relevance for overcoming current barriers to the bandwidth of conventional AI computing systems based on electronic computers. The architecture underlying the programmable nanostructures developed by Prof. Pernice and his group are inspired by the functioning of neurons and the human brain, which do not strictly distinguish between data storage and data processing. Such "neuromorphic" computational methods promise new applications in autonomous driving, training artificial neural networks or ultra-fast processing of telecommunication signals.

In the same issue, Prof. Rüdiger Klingeler of STRUC­TURES talks with educational scien­tist Nina Jude about hard facts in soft re­search fields, about defects that increase the stability of a material, and about the question of which soft skills and hard skills are really necessary in studies; and what school education should do in this regard.